The Man Of The Seas

: PART ONE
: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

It was the commander of the vessel who thus spoke.



At these words, Ned Land rose suddenly. The steward, nearly strangled,

tottered out on a sign from his master. But such was the power of the

commander on board, that not a gesture betrayed the resentment which

this man must have felt towards the Canadian. Conseil interested in

spite of himself, I stupefied, awaited in silence the result of this

scene.< r />


The commander, leaning against the corner of a table with his arms

folded, scanned us with profound attention. Did he hesitate to speak?

Did he regret the words which he had just spoken in French? One might

almost think so.



After some moments of silence, which not one of us dreamed of breaking,

"Gentlemen," said he, in a calm and penetrating voice, "I speak French,

English, German, and Latin equally well. I could, therefore, have

answered you at our first interview, but I wished to know you first,

then to reflect. The story told by each one, entirely agreeing in the

main points, convinced me of your identity. I know now that chance has

brought before me M. Pierre Aronnax, Professor of Natural History at

the Museum of Paris, entrusted with a scientific mission abroad,

Conseil, his servant, and Ned Land, of Canadian origin, harpooner on

board the frigate Abraham Lincoln of the navy of the United States of

America."



I bowed assent. It was not a question that the commander put to me.

Therefore there was no answer to be made. This man expressed himself

with perfect ease, without any accent. His sentences were well turned,

his words clear, and his fluency of speech remarkable. Yet, I did not

recognise in him a fellow-countryman.



He continued the conversation in these terms:



"You have doubtless thought, sir, that I have delayed long in paying

you this second visit. The reason is that, your identity recognised, I

wished to weigh maturely what part to act towards you. I have

hesitated much. Most annoying circumstances have brought you into the

presence of a man who has broken all the ties of humanity. You have

come to trouble my existence."



"Unintentionally!" said I.



"Unintentionally?" replied the stranger, raising his voice a little.

"Was it unintentionally that the Abraham Lincoln pursued me all over

the seas? Was it unintentionally that you took passage in this

frigate? Was it unintentionally that your cannon-balls rebounded off

the plating of my vessel? Was it unintentionally that Mr. Ned Land

struck me with his harpoon?"



I detected a restrained irritation in these words. But to these

recriminations I had a very natural answer to make, and I made it.



"Sir," said I, "no doubt you are ignorant of the discussions which have

taken place concerning you in America and Europe. You do not know that

divers accidents, caused by collisions with your submarine machine,

have excited public feeling in the two continents. I omit the theories

without number by which it was sought to explain that of which you

alone possess the secret. But you must understand that, in pursuing

you over the high seas of the Pacific, the Abraham Lincoln believed

itself to be chasing some powerful sea-monster, of which it was

necessary to rid the ocean at any price."



A half-smile curled the lips of the commander: then, in a calmer tone:



"M. Aronnax," he replied, "dare you affirm that your frigate would not

as soon have pursued and cannonaded a submarine boat as a monster?"



This question embarrassed me, for certainly Captain Farragut might not

have hesitated. He might have thought it his duty to destroy a

contrivance of this kind, as he would a gigantic narwhal.



"You understand then, sir," continued the stranger, "that I have the

right to treat you as enemies?"



I answered nothing, purposely. For what good would it be to discuss

such a proposition, when force could destroy the best arguments?



"I have hesitated some time," continued the commander; "nothing obliged

me to show you hospitality. If I chose to separate myself from you, I

should have no interest in seeing you again; I could place you upon the

deck of this vessel which has served you as a refuge, I could sink

beneath the waters, and forget that you had ever existed. Would not

that be my right?"



"It might be the right of a savage," I answered, "but not that of a

civilised man."



"Professor," replied the commander, quickly, "I am not what you call a

civilised man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I

alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its

laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!"



This was said plainly. A flash of anger and disdain kindled in the

eyes of the Unknown, and I had a glimpse of a terrible past in the life

of this man. Not only had he put himself beyond the pale of human

laws, but he had made himself independent of them, free in the

strictest acceptation of the word, quite beyond their reach! Who then

would dare to pursue him at the bottom of the sea, when, on its

surface, he defied all attempts made against him?



What vessel could resist the shock of his submarine monitor? What

cuirass, however thick, could withstand the blows of his spur? No man

could demand from him an account of his actions; God, if he believed in

one--his conscience, if he had one--were the sole judges to whom he was

answerable.



These reflections crossed my mind rapidly, whilst the stranger

personage was silent, absorbed, and as if wrapped up in himself. I

regarded him with fear mingled with interest, as, doubtless, OEdiphus

regarded the Sphinx.



After rather a long silence, the commander resumed the conversation.



"I have hesitated," said he, "but I have thought that my interest might

be reconciled with that pity to which every human being has a right.

You will remain on board my vessel, since fate has cast you there. You

will be free; and, in exchange for this liberty, I shall only impose

one single condition. Your word of honour to submit to it will

suffice."



"Speak, sir," I answered. "I suppose this condition is one which a man

of honour may accept?"



"Yes, sir; it is this: It is possible that certain events, unforeseen,

may oblige me to consign you to your cabins for some hours or some

days, as the case may be. As I desire never to use violence, I expect

from you, more than all the others, a passive obedience. In thus

acting, I take all the responsibility: I acquit you entirely, for I

make it an impossibility for you to see what ought not to be seen. Do

you accept this condition?"



Then things took place on board which, to say the least, were singular,

and which ought not to be seen by people who were not placed beyond the

pale of social laws. Amongst the surprises which the future was

preparing for me, this might not be the least.



"We accept," I answered; "only I will ask your permission, sir, to

address one question to you--one only."



"Speak, sir."



"You said that we should be free on board."



"Entirely."



"I ask you, then, what you mean by this liberty?"



"Just the liberty to go, to come, to see, to observe even all that

passes here save under rare circumstances--the liberty, in short, which

we enjoy ourselves, my companions and I."



It was evident that we did not understand one another.



"Pardon me, sir," I resumed, "but this liberty is only what every

prisoner has of pacing his prison. It cannot suffice us."



"It must suffice you, however."



"What! we must renounce for ever seeing our country, our friends, our

relations again?"



"Yes, sir. But to renounce that unendurable worldly yoke which men

believe to be liberty is not perhaps so painful as you think."



"Well," exclaimed Ned Land, "never will I give my word of honour not to

try to escape."



"I did not ask you for your word of honour, Master Land," answered the

commander, coldly.



"Sir," I replied, beginning to get angry in spite of my self, "you

abuse your situation towards us; it is cruelty."



"No, sir, it is clemency. You are my prisoners of war. I keep you,

when I could, by a word, plunge you into the depths of the ocean. You

attacked me. You came to surprise a secret which no man in the world

must penetrate--the secret of my whole existence. And you think that I

am going to send you back to that world which must know me no more?

Never! In retaining you, it is not you whom I guard--it is myself."



These words indicated a resolution taken on the part of the commander,

against which no arguments would prevail.



"So, sir," I rejoined, "you give us simply the choice between life and

death?"



"Simply."



"My friends," said I, "to a question thus put, there is nothing to

answer. But no word of honour binds us to the master of this vessel."



"None, sir," answered the Unknown.



Then, in a gentler tone, he continued:



"Now, permit me to finish what I have to say to you. I know you, M.

Aronnax. You and your companions will not, perhaps, have so much to

complain of in the chance which has bound you to my fate. You will

find amongst the books which are my favourite study the work which you

have published on `the depths of the sea.' I have often read it. You

have carried out your work as far as terrestrial science permitted you.

But you do not know all--you have not seen all. Let me tell you then,

Professor, that you will not regret the time passed on board my vessel.

You are going to visit the land of marvels."



These words of the commander had a great effect upon me. I cannot deny

it. My weak point was touched; and I forgot, for a moment, that the

contemplation of these sublime subjects was not worth the loss of

liberty. Besides, I trusted to the future to decide this grave

question. So I contented myself with saying:



"By what name ought I to address you?"



"Sir," replied the commander, "I am nothing to you but Captain Nemo;

and you and your companions are nothing to me but the passengers of the

Nautilus."



Captain Nemo called. A steward appeared. The captain gave him his

orders in that strange language which I did not understand. Then,

turning towards the Canadian and Conseil:



"A repast awaits you in your cabin," said he. "Be so good as to follow

this man.



"And now, M. Aronnax, our breakfast is ready. Permit me to lead the

way."



"I am at your service, Captain."



I followed Captain Nemo; and as soon as I had passed through the door,

I found myself in a kind of passage lighted by electricity, similar to

the waist of a ship. After we had proceeded a dozen yards, a second

door opened before me.



I then entered a dining-room, decorated and furnished in severe taste.

High oaken sideboards, inlaid with ebony, stood at the two extremities

of the room, and upon their shelves glittered china, porcelain, and

glass of inestimable value. The plate on the table sparkled in the

rays which the luminous ceiling shed around, while the light was

tempered and softened by exquisite paintings.



In the centre of the room was a table richly laid out. Captain Nemo

indicated the place I was to occupy.



The breakfast consisted of a certain number of dishes, the contents of

which were furnished by the sea alone; and I was ignorant of the nature

and mode of preparation of some of them. I acknowledged that they were

good, but they had a peculiar flavour, which I easily became accustomed

to. These different aliments appeared to me to be rich in phosphorus,

and I thought they must have a marine origin.



Captain Nemo looked at me. I asked him no questions, but he guessed my

thoughts, and answered of his own accord the questions which I was

burning to address to him.



"The greater part of these dishes are unknown to you," he said to me.

"However, you may partake of them without fear. They are wholesome and

nourishing. For a long time I have renounced the food of the earth,

and I am never ill now. My crew, who are healthy, are fed on the same

food."



"So," said I, "all these eatables are the produce of the sea?"



"Yes, Professor, the sea supplies all my wants. Sometimes I cast my

nets in tow, and I draw them in ready to break. Sometimes I hunt in

the midst of this element, which appears to be inaccessible to man, and

quarry the game which dwells in my submarine forests. My flocks, like

those of Neptune's old shepherds, graze fearlessly in the immense

prairies of the ocean. I have a vast property there, which I cultivate

myself, and which is always sown by the hand of the Creator of all

things."



"I can understand perfectly, sir, that your nets furnish excellent fish

for your table; I can understand also that you hunt aquatic game in

your submarine forests; but I cannot understand at all how a particle

of meat, no matter how small, can figure in your bill of fare."



"This, which you believe to be meat, Professor, is nothing else than

fillet of turtle. Here are also some dolphins' livers, which you take

to be ragout of pork. My cook is a clever fellow, who excels in

dressing these various products of the ocean. Taste all these dishes.

Here is a preserve of sea-cucumber, which a Malay would declare to be

unrivalled in the world; here is a cream, of which the milk has been

furnished by the cetacea, and the sugar by the great fucus of the North

Sea; and, lastly, permit me to offer you some preserve of anemones,

which is equal to that of the most delicious fruits."



I tasted, more from curiosity than as a connoisseur, whilst Captain

Nemo enchanted me with his extraordinary stories.



"You like the sea, Captain?"



"Yes; I love it! The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the

terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense

desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all

sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful

existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the `Living

Infinite,' as one of your poets has said. In fact, Professor, Nature

manifests herself in it by her three kingdoms--mineral, vegetable, and

animal. The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature. The globe began with

sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it? In it is

supreme tranquillity. The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its

surface men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to

pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty

feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched,

and their power disappears. Ah! sir, live--live in the bosom of the

waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters!

There I am free!"



Captain Nemo suddenly became silent in the midst of this enthusiasm, by

which he was quite carried away. For a few moments he paced up and

down, much agitated. Then he became more calm, regained his accustomed

coldness of expression, and turning towards me:



"Now, Professor," said he, "if you wish to go over the Nautilus, I am

at your service."



Captain Nemo rose. I followed him. A double door, contrived at the

back of the dining-room, opened, and I entered a room equal in

dimensions to that which I had just quitted.



It was a library. High pieces of furniture, of black violet ebony

inlaid with brass, supported upon their wide shelves a great number of

books uniformly bound. They followed the shape of the room,

terminating at the lower part in huge divans, covered with brown

leather, which were curved, to afford the greatest comfort. Light

movable desks, made to slide in and out at will, allowed one to rest

one's book while reading. In the centre stood an immense table,

covered with pamphlets, amongst which were some newspapers, already of

old date. The electric light flooded everything; it was shed from four

unpolished globes half sunk in the volutes of the ceiling. I looked

with real admiration at this room, so ingeniously fitted up, and I

could scarcely believe my eyes.



"Captain Nemo," said I to my host, who had just thrown himself on one

of the divans, "this is a library which would do honour to more than

one of the continental palaces, and I am absolutely astounded when I

consider that it can follow you to the bottom of the seas."



"Where could one find greater solitude or silence, Professor?" replied

Captain Nemo. "Did your study in the Museum afford you such perfect

quiet?"



"No, sir; and I must confess that it is a very poor one after yours.

You must have six or seven thousand volumes here."



"Twelve thousand, M. Aronnax. These are the only ties which bind me to

the earth. But I had done with the world on the day when my Nautilus

plunged for the first time beneath the waters. That day I bought my

last volumes, my last pamphlets, my last papers, and from that time I

wish to think that men no longer think or write. These books,

Professor, are at your service besides, and you can make use of them

freely."



I thanked Captain Nemo, and went up to the shelves of the library.

Works on science, morals, and literature abounded in every language;

but I did not see one single work on political economy; that subject

appeared to be strictly proscribed. Strange to say, all these books

were irregularly arranged, in whatever language they were written; and

this medley proved that the Captain of the Nautilus must have read

indiscriminately the books which he took up by chance.



"Sir," said I to the Captain, "I thank you for having placed this

library at my disposal. It contains treasures of science, and I shall

profit by them."



"This room is not only a library," said Captain Nemo, "it is also a

smoking-room."



"A smoking-room!" I cried. "Then one may smoke on board?"



"Certainly."



"Then, sir, I am forced to believe that you have kept up a

communication with Havannah."



"Not any," answered the Captain. "Accept this cigar, M. Aronnax; and,

though it does not come from Havannah, you will be pleased with it, if

you are a connoisseur."



I took the cigar which was offered me; its shape recalled the London

ones, but it seemed to be made of leaves of gold. I lighted it at a

little brazier, which was supported upon an elegant bronze stem, and

drew the first whiffs with the delight of a lover of smoking who has

not smoked for two days.



"It is excellent, but it is not tobacco."



"No!" answered the Captain, "this tobacco comes neither from Havannah

nor from the East. It is a kind of sea-weed, rich in nicotine, with

which the sea provides me, but somewhat sparingly."



At that moment Captain Nemo opened a door which stood opposite to that

by which I had entered the library, and I passed into an immense

drawing-room splendidly lighted.



It was a vast, four-sided room, thirty feet long, eighteen wide, and

fifteen high. A luminous ceiling, decorated with light arabesques,

shed a soft clear light over all the marvels accumulated in this

museum. For it was in fact a museum, in which an intelligent and

prodigal hand had gathered all the treasures of nature and art, with

the artistic confusion which distinguishes a painter's studio.



Thirty first-rate pictures, uniformly framed, separated by bright

drapery, ornamented the walls, which were hung with tapestry of severe

design. I saw works of great value, the greater part of which I had

admired in the special collections of Europe, and in the exhibitions of

paintings. The several schools of the old masters were represented by a

Madonna of Raphael, a Virgin of Leonardo da Vinci, a nymph of Corregio,

a woman of Titan, an Adoration of Veronese, an Assumption of Murillo, a

portrait of Holbein, a monk of Velasquez, a martyr of Ribera, a fair of

Rubens, two Flemish landscapes of Teniers, three little "genre"

pictures of Gerard Dow, Metsu, and Paul Potter, two specimens of

Gericault and Prudhon, and some sea-pieces of Backhuysen and Vernet.

Amongst the works of modern painters were pictures with the signatures

of Delacroix, Ingres, Decamps, Troyon, Meissonier, Daubigny, etc.; and

some admirable statues in marble and bronze, after the finest antique

models, stood upon pedestals in the corners of this magnificent museum.

Amazement, as the Captain of the Nautilus had predicted, had already

begun to take possession of me.



"Professor," said this strange man, "you must excuse the unceremonious

way in which I receive you, and the disorder of this room."



"Sir," I answered, "without seeking to know who you are, I recognise in

you an artist."



"An amateur, nothing more, sir. Formerly I loved to collect these

beautiful works created by the hand of man. I sought them greedily,

and ferreted them out indefatigably, and I have been able to bring

together some objects of great value. These are my last souvenirs of

that world which is dead to me. In my eyes, your modern artists are

already old; they have two or three thousand years of existence; I

confound them in my own mind. Masters have no age."



"And these musicians?" said I, pointing out some works of Weber,

Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Meyerbeer, Herold, Wagner, Auber,

Gounod, and a number of others, scattered over a large model

piano-organ which occupied one of the panels of the drawing-room.



"These musicians," replied Captain Nemo, "are the contemporaries of

Orpheus; for in the memory of the dead all chronological differences

are effaced; and I am dead, Professor; as much dead as those of your

friends who are sleeping six feet under the earth!"



Captain Nemo was silent, and seemed lost in a profound reverie. I

contemplated him with deep interest, analysing in silence the strange

expression of his countenance. Leaning on his elbow against an angle of

a costly mosaic table, he no longer saw me,--he had forgotten my

presence.



I did not disturb this reverie, and continued my observation of the

curiosities which enriched this drawing-room.



Under elegant glass cases, fixed by copper rivets, were classed and

labelled the most precious productions of the sea which had ever been

presented to the eye of a naturalist. My delight as a professor may be

conceived.



The division containing the zoophytes presented the most curious

specimens of the two groups of polypi and echinodermes. In the first

group, the tubipores, were gorgones arranged like a fan, soft sponges

of Syria, ises of the Moluccas, pennatules, an admirable virgularia of

the Norwegian seas, variegated unbellulairae, alcyonariae, a whole

series of madrepores, which my master Milne Edwards has so cleverly

classified, amongst which I remarked some wonderful flabellinae

oculinae of the Island of Bourbon, the "Neptune's car" of the Antilles,

superb varieties of corals--in short, every species of those curious

polypi of which entire islands are formed, which will one day become

continents. Of the echinodermes, remarkable for their coating of

spines, asteri, sea-stars, pantacrinae, comatules, asterophons, echini,

holothuri, etc., represented individually a complete collection of this

group.



A somewhat nervous conchyliologist would certainly have fainted before

other more numerous cases, in which were classified the specimens of

molluscs. It was a collection of inestimable value, which time fails me

to describe minutely. Amongst these specimens I will quote from memory

only the elegant royal hammer-fish of the Indian Ocean, whose regular

white spots stood out brightly on a red and brown ground, an imperial

spondyle, bright-coloured, bristling with spines, a rare specimen in

the European museums--(I estimated its value at not less than L1000); a

common hammer-fish of the seas of New Holland, which is only procured

with difficulty; exotic buccardia of Senegal; fragile white bivalve

shells, which a breath might shatter like a soap-bubble; several

varieties of the aspirgillum of Java, a kind of calcareous tube, edged

with leafy folds, and much debated by amateurs; a whole series of

trochi, some a greenish-yellow, found in the American seas, others a

reddish-brown, natives of Australian waters; others from the Gulf of

Mexico, remarkable for their imbricated shell; stellari found in the

Southern Seas; and last, the rarest of all, the magnificent spur of New

Zealand; and every description of delicate and fragile shells to which

science has given appropriate names.



Apart, in separate compartments, were spread out chaplets of pearls of

the greatest beauty, which reflected the electric light in little

sparks of fire; pink pearls, torn from the pinna-marina of the Red Sea;

green pearls of the haliotyde iris; yellow, blue and black pearls, the

curious productions of the divers molluscs of every ocean, and certain

mussels of the water-courses of the North; lastly, several specimens of

inestimable value which had been gathered from the rarest pintadines.

Some of these pearls were larger than a pigeon's egg, and were worth as

much, and more than that which the traveller Tavernier sold to the Shah

of Persia for three millions, and surpassed the one in the possession

of the Imaum of Muscat, which I had believed to be unrivalled in the

world.



Therefore, to estimate the value of this collection was simply

impossible. Captain Nemo must have expended millions in the

acquirement of these various specimens, and I was thinking what source

he could have drawn from, to have been able thus to gratify his fancy

for collecting, when I was interrupted by these words:



"You are examining my shells, Professor? Unquestionably they must be

interesting to a naturalist; but for me they have a far greater charm,

for I have collected them all with my own hand, and there is not a sea

on the face of the globe which has escaped my researches."



"I can understand, Captain, the delight of wandering about in the midst

of such riches. You are one of those who have collected their

treasures themselves. No museum in Europe possesses such a collection

of the produce of the ocean. But if I exhaust all my admiration upon

it, I shall have none left for the vessel which carries it. I do not

wish to pry into your secrets: but I must confess that this Nautilus,

with the motive power which is confined in it, the contrivances which

enable it to be worked, the powerful agent which propels it, all excite

my curiosity to the highest pitch. I see suspended on the walls of

this room instruments of whose use I am ignorant."



"You will find these same instruments in my own room, Professor, where

I shall have much pleasure in explaining their use to you. But first

come and inspect the cabin which is set apart for your own use. You

must see how you will be accommodated on board the Nautilus."



I followed Captain Nemo who, by one of the doors opening from each

panel of the drawing-room, regained the waist. He conducted me towards

the bow, and there I found, not a cabin, but an elegant room, with a

bed, dressing-table, and several other pieces of excellent furniture.



I could only thank my host.



"Your room adjoins mine," said he, opening a door, "and mine opens into

the drawing-room that we have just quitted."



I entered the Captain's room: it had a severe, almost a monkish

aspect. A small iron bedstead, a table, some articles for the toilet;

the whole lighted by a skylight. No comforts, the strictest

necessaries only.



Captain Nemo pointed to a seat.



"Be so good as to sit down," he said. I seated myself, and he began

thus: